Aliens: The Other Survivor, Special Edition
by Warlord Darnell
Summary: Rewrite of Aliens: The Other Survivor. What if there was a second surviving Colonist on Hadley's Hope? What if that colonist was a teenage male? What happens when rescue finally comes for Jake Essex? Same plot as before, but more correct and w/more scenes
1. The Day Rescue Came

_**It's Warlord again. You're wondering what I'm doing with this new "Special Edition" aren't you? Well, to say the least, this is a rewrite of my first Fanfiction. **_

_**I've decided to rewrite it seeing as I had a feeling from rereading it that it ultimately could use a lot of work, seeing as how my writing is how has greatly changed. Plus, I made a couple of errors in the first one.**_

_**That being said, I'm still trying to keep the recipe the same. I'm just making the dish again.**_

_**So review, and enjoy…**_

**Aliens: The Other Survivor**

**Special Edition**

**Chapter 1: The Day Rescue Came**

**Archeron**

_On LV-426, the landscape was bleak and hellish. The Planet was a rock, with no indigenous life. Always has, and always will be. However, it never meant that there wasn't movement._

_ The winds howled like banshees. It was one of the first things one heard upon arriving on the surface. Before you may even take your first step, you'd hear the wind. It had always been there, and it was never going away._

_ And it blew over some of the worst landscapes known to man. The surface was twisted and gnarled, the remains of lava flows seen in the rocks that twisted the surface. Truly, in any mind known, the land was a true hell. _

_ One saw shapes organic in the stone. Not fossils, but smooth, twisted, and lumpy rock. It looked like it had almost been grown, yet, wasn't. _

_ The planet had gotten this appearance from erosion; from the wind and the rain. Not from life._

_ Not to say that the rain stood for nothing. As the short nights went on, the rain fell in driving sheets. One could have only stood outside for a single minute, and the driving rain will have soaked you to the bone. There was truly no escaping what was ultimately fitting weather._

_ Not to say that it discouraged settlement. Quite the contrary; there were plenty of colonists. They arrived, roughly 30 years after the Nostromo landed and the first footsteps were made on it's surface._

_ These colonists had a rather different goal. They came in, towing massive atmosphere processors. These numbered up to 32, and had been scattered all across the surface. _

_ These atmosphere processors were massive, taller than the Great Pyramids of Egypt. They contained scientific processes to make the atmosphere breathable, and on a scale to be a hazard if the wrong circumstances went on._

_ The colonists had built their city; Hadley's Hope. It was made up of modules that were built to be connected. The atmosphere processor they built around was the one that controlled the others via remote. _

_ In the early days, people had to walk out in the hellish weather, or perhaps take one of their surveying vehicles to the processor. _

_ To solve the problem and make things easier, they built a service shaft, connecting underneath the ground, both the main colony complex and the main processor. _

_ That wasn't enough though. In the second year, they flew in old shipping containers, massive to carry the gargantuan loads of cargo. These were reconfigured into bars, a casino, and other places to kill time in after hours._

_ And the colonists of Hadley's hope lived undisturbed until that fateful day when the Jordan family brought Mr. Jordan home with an alien parasite, counting down the numbers of colonists as the creatures birthed in blood from the chest of their victims had outnumbered the colonists. _

_ Eventually, it was emptied out, of all, but one. _

**Survivor**

_His life had been an extremely perilous three-way edge of paranoia, instinct, and routine. Each of the three attributes held sway as pillars of his new life. _

_ Instinct kept him moving. This was essential to survival. If one did not keep moving, one had a greater chance of being captured by the hunters when they came, and would immediately be either killed or brought back to the hive._

_ Paranoia kept him in the know. If you were constantly watching your back, you had less of a chance of being snuck up upon. In small amounts, like what he had, the feeling was truly helpful. However, Paranoia isn't what you always want to have. It was cancerous, and like the very tumor it is named after, will constantly grow, and always be there. It was something he dealt with in his mind all of the time._

_ Routine kept him sane. If one had a routine, and kept at it, one would always have something to keep the mind and the body busy. You never wanted to grow lazy, and you never wanted to grow bored. It has been said one of the best ways of recovering from tragedy was always work. This served as that._

_ He had survived two years after the infestation had happened. The days of the outbreak were still fresh in his head. However, he knew that he had to keep at today, and not worry about what happened two years ago. And so each day, he survived in this routine, until a slight break had happened that changed everything. It was the day that Rescue had come._

**Jake Essex**

He slept curled up on a mat in a hub of the air ducts. The place that he used to play in as a child were now his new home and hideout. At seventeen years old however, some things are not the same though.

The place was only the size of the space under a normal dining table. It was not like there was as much room as when he was younger.

The alarm on his phone went off at the usual 7:30 AM. The guitar chords played in loop, a light, poppy tune that had doubled as a ringtone played. It normally wasn't very loud, but in the silence of the empty colony complex, it rang out with a fervor.

This woke him up, as he stirred underneath the green throw-blanket he slept under.

He always had it go off at 7:30, every day of the year.

He woke up, yet didn't shut it off. He lit it shut off on its own. Had he shut it off right then, the aliens might realize there was something about, and that would send them right onto him.

Besides; it's not like it was a problem. He had only modified it to go off once, rather than loop until stopped. It made sense since he kept it on his person, knowing the true pain if it went off while he was outside. The Xenos would be on him, and it would be the end of everything he had lived for.

As he removed the green throw blanket from on top of him, the light cloth having lost its softness from being used as a regular bed sheet. It also stank, since he'd never washed either himself or the sheet. A shower would be really nice.

However, being naked and exposed in a shower stall while the creatures were running around wasn't on his list of things to do.

Moreover, he slept in his clothes, a habit that was uncomfortable at first, yet he ultimately grew used to. He had a loose T-shirt, originally white, yet turned a slight shade of gray. He wore jeans, slightly baggy, held up by a belt. Years ago, one would find this trend all over the place among people his age. Now, not so much.

He even slept in his shoes, a pair of sneakers which were white and had some of the most fitting appearance for the time. They were made by Reebok, and sold to this day.

He did however, still get dressed, though not as heavily as one might think. He simply put on his survival jacket, a large, leather trenchcoat that went down to his knees. It was chosen because if one of the Xenos grabbed him, he could easily slip out and get away.

Then, he reached for the small panel next to his pillow, and found his glasses. The frames were designer, a leopard/jungle color scheme on the plastic, with metal inside the translucent plastic shining.

These frames had been considered fashionable some time ago, and the lenses may not have worked as well as they did when he first got them, on account of a change in prescription needs.

However, there wasn't an optometrist nearby available, so he simply had to make do.

He felt his hand around the pockets of his jacket, making sure everything was there. His jacket contained everything he'd need to venture out beyond the ducts. It held his security controls, the keys to the "security system" he'd set up, out beyond where he ventured and at the entrance to the ducts. It held a couple of throwing knives, all of which were identical, yet only numbered five. He initially had twenty, yet lost most of them through use. The creatures acid blood made recovery of a used knife impossible. It also held his all-access keycard. It was never really his; he'd only scavenged it off the body of one of the managers of the place.

With that, he had to begin his routine. Shifting his long black hair out of his brown eyes, he had to get a start on the day.

At the meeting points to the hub, he'd set up cameras for both ways. He checked his security controls, keying for each camera. He knew that one of these days, the creatures would get close.

However, they were empty. He knew the coast was clear for now.

He needed to grab breakfast, since his stomach was starting to growl. If he didn't do something soon, he'd attract the Xenos with his stomach's rolling glurches.

He'd always stashed food into nearby panels in the walls. The places were set up so that if he was driven out of his hovel in the vents, he'd be able to still eat.

The nearest stash was a directly below, on ground level, ten meters to the left. It had been hidden behind a loose panel.

He knew they came around this hour during the local Tuesday. He was completely certain, he'd kept a calendar. If that wasn't proof enough, than what was?

Making his way to the stairs, light on his feet, careful not to make too much noise with his hiking boots, he walked. His boots had never been removed, the once, tan-brown now a dark shade of black.

He arrived at the stairs. They were small, and on two flights for the same case. There was a banister on each side. The stairs had a gap right in the center, allowing for visibility below.

He checked the spot on the bottom of the stairs. From what he could tell, there was nothing. Appearances lied often though.

He'd found that the best way to move was fast and with a purpose. Capitalizing on that thought, he slid down the banister. The seat of his jeans was silent against the smooth metal. He personally never wanted to waste time in getting from Point A to Point B.

Time wasters suffered horrible fates. They got killed, brought back to the hive, or whatever the creatures decided to do with you when they caught you.

He moved with a sure purpose to the panel, constantly watching his back. He constantly heard the dripping of the rain through the holes in the roof, sounding like padding of feet.

Constant Vigilance was reinforce with slight Paranoia. He'd seen his friends get taken back because they didn't look back. It formed the basis for one of his survival mottoes. Number 7

7. Look Back or Get Taken Back

He felt like that motto held more truth now than ever. For some reason, he had a feeling that he was being watched. It was strange, and unsettling.

He moved towards the loose panel he'd hidden the cans behind. It was painted with **Level 1 Weyland-Yutani** in the company colors.

He knew the only way to open the panel, one of the best-kept secret's he'd had. It was genius.

To open the panel, one had to knock the panel in just the right place. Knocking on the upper-right spot really hard, the panel came loose. What was inside was a bit of a surprise.

It seemed that most of the food he'd stashed went missing. He'd had 50 cans yesterday; today, only 23. Someone had been stealing from his stash.

"CRAP!" he yelled.

"Crap!" the air echoed.

This startled him, making him jump 3 feet. Checking his back, he found that nothing had been sneaking up on him.

He then checked above and below through the panels. Thankfully, there was nothing.

He sorted through the cans and took two. He had selected Chicken-Noodle Soup and Chef Boyardee Ravioli.

He had a small, very quiet hot-plate in his Safehouse. He figured he could cook the food then.

He had replaced the panel and took a few steps to the stairs when he'd heard something new, loud, and unexpected.


	2. The Rescue Party

_**I don't get what's wrong? It's like everyone is ignoring this special edition like there isn't anything there. I'm rather sad. Then I remembered that there was only one chapter posted since May, meaning that I should add a bit more.**_

_**That being said, enjoy and review, because **__**all**__** reviews are fuel…**_

**Chapter 2: The Rescue Party**

* * *

**Survival Rule # 1: **Always Trust Your Ears

* * *

The sound was something different than what he'd initially expected. It was one he hadn't heard in an incredibly long time; a sound that he'd been looking forward to hearing for an incredibly long time. It was the opening of the outer locks.

In the early days of the outbreak, the people in charge of the colony who'd remained had shut them in an attempt to lock them out. It didn't work.

They'd found another way, and to this day, Jake still hadn't found what it was. All he knew is that they came from the direction of the colony that faced the Atmosphere Processor.

He heard some voices from the door. They weren't very loud at all. A normal person, one who wasn't paranoid and used to listening and perceiving the slightest change. It was crazy how quiet it was. During the Colony's heyday, the voices would only be heard close up. Yet the strange quiet produced by the lack of people had allowed them to be heard.

He knew that it was rescue; he was the only person left, and nobody else had been outside in ages. It obviously meant rescue had come.

"Here!" he shouted, waving his arms "Over here!"

Had rescue not come for him now, he would have been insane to shout like he was, knowing the creatures would pick him up and take him away.

He heard the stomping of combat boots growing closer. Turning around to check his back, he saw that the coast was clear for now.

Turning back around, he saw exactly the sight that he'd imagine seeing; Colonial Marines.

Two of them to be exact. Both were tall, medium built, with the usual armor. This consisted of camouflage painted body armor, with names printed at the neck level, combat helmets, and fatigues. One had "**Hicks"** written across, the other read **"Hudson"**.

Hick's armor had very little decorating it other than a heart with a key-lock padlock on it.

Hudson had a skull with a knife through the eye, a Japanese love-knot with Louise written in red paint along with it.

Both were armed with pulse-rifles, and each had brown hair.

"Where is everybody?" Hicks asked.

"Gone" Jake replied "However, I'm relieved you finally came"

"We found a colonist" Hudson replied into his headset.

After a moment of silence, there was a deep voice through Hudson's headset.

"We've finished our sweep. Looks like we missed whatever ran through here" the voice replied.

"Sure knew how to trash the place" Hicks sighted "And what's with all of the soup inside the panel?" he pointed at the stash that Jake had opened up.

Jake paused, and laughed awkwardly, saying "Kind of a long story. You guy's hungry?"

**Ripley**

_ Inside of the APC, she heard Gorman say something into his headset, before turning a moment to look at Burke._

_ "We're going inside" Gorman announced "You won't believe what we found"_

_ "What?" Ripley asked._

"_A colonist" Gorman answered._

**Jake**

He was currently walking into medlab with Hicks, while protesting that he didn't need medical examination.

"I keep telling you" He repeated "I feel fine."

"Sure don't look like it to me" a female voice replied from behind.

Turning around, he saw a female Marine, obviously the corpsman, judging by the medical pack she carried with her. Her armor read "**Dietrich**". As far as he was concerned, she was the prettiest thing he'd ever seen, especially since he hadn't seen a woman in the flesh in over 2 years.

"He's all yours Dietrich" Hicks replied, walking away.

"So what's going to happen exactly?" he asked, managing his words.

"You're going to open your mouth" she replied, taking out a small stick to examine "and say 'ah' for me"

He held out his tongue, and she put the wooden piece right on it. He then proceeded to go "Ah" for at least ten minutes.

"Alright" she replied, removing the wooden piece "I'm going to need you to stand on this for me"

She proceeded to put a collapsible scale on the ground.

He slid off the table and right onto the scale.

She took a look at the display on her medical equipment monitor.

"one hundred forty pounds." She sighed "And you're 6'1'', so that means you're right on the money with your weight. A little skinny, yet perfectly healthy."

"I'm hungry" he admitted, withdrawing the can of Chicken Noodle soup from his jacket "Is there a hot plate around here?"

"What are you doing with that?" she asked, confused.

"I had it in my stash" he replied "put it in my pocket right when you guys showed up."

"You're seventeen, right?" she asked.

He nodded.

"As far as I can tell," Dietrich replied "The only thing you need is a good shower"

"I wanted to take one for a long time" he replied "If it wasn't for the creatures"

"Whatever" Dietrich replied, taking her kit and walking away.

On the way out, he spotted two more people, who seemed to be dressed differently than the marines.

The first one was a woman, who appeared to be in her thirties, with long, curly, black hair, brown eyes, a leather jacket, and some flight trousers.

The other was a man, with brown hair, which was curly and cut short; a polyster vest over a brown-plaid shirt, and some black slacks.

Dietrich stopped and talked to both of them.

Jake watched them for a moment, confused. He was wondering what Dietrich could be telling them about.

After about five minutes of them talking, he decided to take out his journal from his vest and write down what happened.

He then felt a hand touch his shoulder out of nowhere, and he jumped three feet from the table.

"You're really jumpy kid" the woman noted.

Turning around, he saw the other woman had entered, and that both her and the man were seated across from him.

"Who are you?" he asked.  
"My name is Carter Burke" the man replied.

"Mine's Ripley" the woman added.  
"Burke, Burke…" Jake repeated, confused "That name is familiar. I can't remember where I heard it from"

"I don't think that's important" Burke replied "I need to know exactly what happened here"

"Why do you care" Jake retorted "You guys got here a bit late to do any rescuing. Why don't you just cut your losses and we all pull out of here, nuke this place. I just want to get out of here"

"Can you please just tell us what happened?" Burke sighed, putting his fingers around the bridge of his nose and closing his eyes.

"Marcus Jorden went out past the Illium Range one day, his wife takes him back with something attached to his face. Four more people go out, two come back with the same things on their faces, and then things go to hell. Something manages to come out of their chests, and then as people disappeared, they began to multiply"

For a brief moment, he didn't even notice Ripley leave the room while he had been talking, because she came back with a cup of something warm and handed it to him.

He took a sip, and after recognizing that it was hot chocolate, began to drink more of it. It felt good to be able to have cocoa again; he'd been wanting to find a packet of it for a while.

"What else happened?" Burke asked "Where are the others?"

"The hell I know" Jake replied sarcastically "I only stuck to one area after most of them disappeared. No way in hell am I letting them take me with them"

"So you're the only one left?" Ripley asked.  
"As far as I know" he replied "Something had been stealing all of my food for a while though."

"So this is the one survivor that just appeared to be here" a man stated at the door.

Jake turned his head, to reveal a marine wearing a jumpsuit, commander's hat, and with a pistol at his side. He had short brown hair, and brown eyes.

"Why can't we just leave already?" Jake asked.  
"Is there any way you can tell me what happened to the other colonists?" the marine asked.

"We already tried Gorman" Ripley answered to the man.  
"Says they all were taken" Burke replied.

"I want to know why you guys haven't nuked the place yet" Jake retorted "They're all dead anyways. Why not just cut our losses and pull out" he slid off the table and started to walk out of the room.

**Ripley**

_"Why that little…" Burke grumbled, getting up to follow the kid._

"_Leave him alone Burke" she replied "He's obviously been through a lot."_

**Jake**

He went out of the Infirmary and into Colony control. He figured he'd needed to get away from those people from The Company anyways.

He found Hudson at the schematics terminal, looking over everything. Another Marine, this one a blonde man with a SMART gun and bones hanging from his armor. A look at his chestplate revealed "**Drake**"

"Who are you?" the voice from Hudson's headset asked from behind.  
Jake spun around. This revealed the Sergeant Marine, wearing the typical armor. He was black, and had a cigar in his mouth, that he was chewing on.

"Jake Essex" he replied. He paused, looking around "I see you guys are starting to get settled in fast."

"You the survivor that Hicks and Hudson found?" the Sergeant asked.  
Jake nodded "Took you guys long enough for a rescue."

"Name's Apone" the Sergeant replied, walking up to Jake and shaking his hand.

Jake was taken aback by this. He'd never expected that kind of reaction.

"This place was my hell for two years" He replied, "Can't wait to just leave it behind."

"You call this hell?" Drake asked "Hell's got some fire going on right now. Hell's when you're out of ammo and they've got you pinned down. Hell's where you've got nothing but a…"

"Easy there Drake" Apone replied "He's obviously seen something down here."

Jake simply fell into one of the Colony Control seats, spinning around on the swivel. "Today's the daytime anyways" he replied "Just wait until it get's dark. Then Hell comes to you."

He saw Burke walk in and take a seat next to Hudson, and the two began to look over the display.

Jake simply started to look out the window. Blue-black light shone in from the windows, casting the planet's natural color into the room. It seemed that everything became cold as a breeze blew into the room.

The dark shadows were cast all over, and someone coughed, causing Jake to flinch.

Jake's stomach began to growl even further, echoing across the room.  
"Somebody get this kid something to eat!" Hudson yelled "Sounds like he hasn't eaten in days."

"Might as well" Jake sighed, reaching into his jacket, and pulling out a ration bar, and opening the wrapper.

He then began to eat the prefab food like it was his first meal in years. The peanut butter and apple paste on the inside of the chocolate shell had really had begun to hit the spot. It was like lunch was somehow incredibly sweet.

There was a commotion from down the hall, which Jake had started to ignore, focusing more on his ration bar. There were gunshots, then a yell of pain, before some clunking around.

Jake then turned around in the chair and looked down the hall. As far as he could tell, there was something going on.

"Found another one" Ripley's voice called out.

Jake got up and walked down the hall. In Ripley's hands was a face he thought he'd never see again. Wearing messy overalls and with matted blonde hair, was Rebecca "Newt" Jorden. In her hand, was the head of her doll, which she'd named "Casey".

"Jake?" she asked.  
He didn't answer immediately, but instead followed Ripley as she set Newt down on the table.

"What are you doing here after all of this time?" Jake asked "I thought they'd gotten to you"

"I thought they'd gotten you too" she whispered. She turned to him "It's useless anyways"

"Rescue's finally come for us though" he replied "I don't get why they aren't leaving with us, yet they've come to save all of us"

"They're dead anyways" Newt whispered "If we aren't leaving now, then I doubt we'll leave soon"

"I don't think so" Jake replied "I bet you a dollar that we'll get out of here and go home"  
"I bet it won't work" Newt replied, taking out an old American Dollar from 2012.

No one had used a greenback in years. He was amazed at how she'd have gotten her hands on one. It may be in terrible condition, but it was still worth face value, and as far as he was concerned, her bet.

"Alright" he replied "I only hope for the good of everything that you're wrong." He paused "I'm going to listen to my music now that rescue's come"

He then pulled out his music player, a late model of the Apple iPod. It was the standard model that Apple had released, and they never bothered to mess with it.

He put his collapsible headphones, which were Walkman-style, over his ears, and began to play his Retro's music. He was one of those people who liked to buck modern trends and go with what was popular in the past.

His music was from the days when mankind was just starting to go into space. Rock music from the 1960's, 70's, and 80's, with a little bit of pop from that era mixed in.

He figured that there was just a delay, and that they probably wouldn't go to the Atmosphere Processor.  
He knew that everyone else wasn't in the complex, and that left only the Atmosphere Processor as the place where they went.

He'd never seen them get taken, but he had a pretty good hunch that they were there.

He went into Colony control and took a seat back in the chair. He figured that it wasn't too bad. As long as they left soon, things could be a bit nice.

He continued to see Burke and Hudson standing over the terminal, and it was driving him crazy to know what they were doing.

He got up, paused his music, and walked over to them.

"What are you looking for?" he asked.

"The colonists" Hudson replied.

"All of the adult colonists who came had Personal Data Transmitters implanted." Burke explained.

"If there within twenty clicks" Hudson explained "We'll find them. So far, zippo"

"Still looking for them huh?" he replied. "Why don't we just leave?"

"Hey" Hudson called out "Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen, found 'em"

"Huh?" Jake asked, bending over and looking at the display.

At first glance, it showed what appeared to be all of the colony inside of the sublevel basement of the atmosphere processor. All of them were clustered around one place also.

"Like a god damn town meeting" Hicks noted.

Jake's stomach fell. He knew that the last thing it was had to be a town meeting. If anything, it's obviously where they made Their House. Unless they were just storing them there, it was obviously where they brought the colonists.

"Alright Apone" Gorman called "Let's saddle up"

"Alright ladies, let's go" Apone called out "They ain't payin' us by the hour"

"Don't go in there" Jake warned "That's where their house is"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Gorman asked.

"The people who went in there never came back" he warned.

"Crazy kid" Burke whispered to Gorman

"Alright, let's go, assholes and elbows" Apone shouted.

All of the colony was emptied at this point, the Marines, Company Reps, and the two survivors went out of the south lock and into the Armored Personnel Carrier. This was a vehicle built on a squat, rectangular frame, with two guns riding outside, and a door on one side that was similar to one on a minivan.

Stepping into the APC, he followed Ripley and Burke, sitting down, and looked pale. He prayed that they're really going to be picked up by a dropship, and that they were not really going in search of the dead colonists.

"You okay kid?" Hicks asked.

"We'll be going into the Atmosphere processor," Jake inquired "Right?"

"Don't I know it" Hicks replied "However, you will be staying in the APC with everyone else. You'll be safe."

"I hope so" Jake sighed "Because nobody has ever come back after going in there..."


End file.
